Love will find a way to take fillies’ Classic

LOVE is all you need in the Investec Oaks (3.40) at Epsom this afternoon.

A Group 1 winner from a seven-race campaign as a two-year-old — she won the Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh last September — Aidan O’brien’s daughter of Galileo hit the ground running in the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket 27 days ago.

Sent off at 4-1 against 14 opponents for the Rowley Mile Classic, Ryan Moore’s partner struck the front with just over a furlong of the one-mile test to run.

In a matter of strides, Love opened up a decisive lead, having four and a half lengths in hand of Cloak Of Spirits at the winning post.

That performance marks Love out as the best filly in today’s race, and the bad news for her seven rivals is that she promises to get even better now that she tackles an extra half-mile. The impression, created by her final-furlong power surge at Newmarket, that middledistances will see Love improve again is backed up by her pedigree.

My selection’s sisters Flattering and Peach Tree were Group 3 winners respectively at a mile and a half and a mile and three-quarters, and Love is a worthy favourite to give O’brien an eighth Oaks triumph.

Market rival (left) has come a long way in a short space of time. Galloping to a five-length supremacy at Newcastle on her return, the John Gosden-trained daughter of Frankel followed up in the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot, holding

by a length and three-quarters, with third and fourth. There is more to come from Frankly Darling, while the way dismissed a field of Newbury maidens on her comeback suggested Roger Varian’s filly could hold her own in against Group opposition.

Ennistymon Passion Bharani Star Gold Wand

FIRST LOVE Love (left) is a Guineas winner who could be better still at middle distances